On the third weekend of every month is the Austin Highway Gun Show, where there are rows of tables with vendors with guns laid out for inspection and purchase. Would-be buyers slowly stroll through the venue, gazing at the pistols, rifles, semiautomatics and shotguns.

While some guns are not purchased from a dealer with a Federal Firearms License, many are – and for those sales, it’s required that the customer complete a 4473 form. And once someone fills it out, it goes into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. When it’s approved, the gun is sold.

But there’s a catch.

“The system is only as good as the information and resources put into it,” said Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.